Author and host of the hit OUTDOOR CHANNEL show SHOOTING GALLERY spouts off...

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Tooting My Own Horn!

As you all know, I am a relentless self-promoter, so I thought I would take a brief moment before SHOT to relentlessly self-promote. As you also know, the OUTDOOR CHANNEL Golden Moose Awards are the big soiree OC holds at SHOT to award programming excellence and buy us all drinks. Golden Moose nominations came out yesterday. My shows are nominated for 9 awards, which is cool.

Best Overall Series
GUN STORIES

Best Shooting Series
SHOOTING GALLERY
GUN STORIES
THE BEST DEFENSE
RAPID FIRE

Best Educational Series
THE BEST DEFENSE
GUN STORIES

Best Show Open
RAPID FIRE

Best Graphics
RAPID FIRE

I was heart-broken that we weren't nominated for Best Turkey, but I suppose you can't have everything. Last year my shows were nominated for 4 GMs, and we won 2 for GUN STORIES.

Seriously, these nominations are a testament to the incredible teams I work with on the various series. John Carter and Mike Long from Hatch Entertainment produce SHOOTING GALLERY and handled the ground portion of RAPID FIRE and specialty videography for GUN STORIES. For last year, Dan Ramm and Joe Mantegna came on board as producers for SHOOTING GALLERY, greasing the skids for our Celebrity Shoot-Out.

Tim Cremin at Winnercomm produces GUN STORIES and RAPID FIRE and worries nearly constantly. Last year Matt Shults from Winnercomm took over as producer of THE BEST DEFENSE. We all committed to take the shows to the next level, and we did.

We don't get to make these shows without sponsors, that is, the people who put up the money and who support us when we want to make these shows better and better. Crimson Trace has been name sponsor of SHOOTING GALLERY since the beginning, 13 seasons ago. My great friends at Midway USA are name sponsors for GUN STORIES and RAPID FIRE and participating sponsors on the other shows. Other long-term sponsors like Ruger, Stag Arms, Streamlight and so many others have given us the ability to build great shows.

Maybe most importantly, the guys out front in the shows are the make-or-break component of a great series. THE BEST DEFENSE has 2 of the finest trainers in America, Michael Janich and Mike Seeklander, as co-hosts. Seeklander stepped up for RAPID FIRE as well, joining Iain Harrison for his weekly does of abuse! LOL! And, finally, the great Joe Mantegna has allowed Tim and I to create the firearms series of our dreams, GUN STORIES.

Hey, maybe we'll even win one or 2! They'll join our 5 "Telly" (cable Emmys) statues, the numerous NSSF Excellence in Commercial Broadcasting awards and a bunch of other wall hardware the shows have received over the year.

War is what's going on in my homes state of Colorado, as in many states. The NRA and the Colorado State Shooting Association are leading the fight. I have testified in front of the Colorado legislature before, and it's highly likely I will be doing it again this time. I know the governor personally, and I have reached out to him on the issues..

Larry, there is smoke coming from the forges of Mordor and evil has risen in the east...we all know this is the big battle, and we are all in. As, I hope, you are.

Michael, Congratulations to say the least, you deserve it. Thank you for all you do.I have a suggestion that I wanted to run by you since you are such a TV star and have all of the right friends. I would think that making a commercial with multiple wounded warriors explaining how they fought for all of the people in this great country and have them ask how our elected officials could dare even think about taking away our constitutional rights after all the warriors gave would be very powerful. Then get it on YouTube, Web Sites, and even TV. I would bet this would go viral instantly. I also ran across this on a website, “Obamacare has a Hidden Amendment that Prevents Gun and Ammo Registry”, this was apparently put in to appease the NRA.. Go figure..